En una entrevista décadas después a la NPR, Simon comentaba el por qué de ese apelativo del Sonido del Silencio: “The key to ‘The Sound Of Silence’ is the simplicity of the melody and the words, which are youthful alienation. It’s a young lyric, but not bad for a 21-year-old. It’s not a sophisticated thought, but a thought that I gathered from some college reading material or something. ...It was a post-adolescent angst, but it had some level of truth to it and it resonated with millions of people. Largely because it had a simple and singable melody.”

Por su parte, Garfunkel así se confesaba muchos años después en MusicRadar: “Ahhh, what a tune!...‘Sound Of Silence’ has more melodic, genius, simple power than I ever realized. As the years go by, there’s something extraordinarily hooky about that simple melody – I didn’t know that. I knew it was a good-sounding record when it emerged…It was the sixth song Paul ever wrote."